Monday, November 5, 2012

Apple Inc.(NASDAQ:AAPL)’s online stores contain prices
of unlocked iPhone 5 units that are expected to be available later this year.

This is, of course, unofficial but according to
AppleInsider, which was tipped off by an alert reader, the unlocked units that
appear on the Apple store could be merely, "placeholders in Apple's
database, however the prices are consistent with identical models being sold in
Canada where all iPhones are unlocked."

Apple has started out mostly selling its latest
iPhones as bundled offerings by tying up with network carriers, although in
some countries the phones are available on their own as unlocked units.

The company is still delivering the phones which are
locked with network carriers.

"While not listed anywhere else on the site, a
query for "iPhone 5 factory unlocked" in the Apple.com search bar
reveals "Apple Store Results" as seen above. The units are priced at
$649 for the 16GB version, $749 for the 32GB model, and $849 for the 64GB iteration,"
AppleInsider said.

All the details are available only after searching for
it on the site. For instance, the prices for the both the GSM and CDMA models
of the phones can be found by adding the storage size to the search.

According to the AppleInsider report, "Currently,
Apple does not offer factory unlocked versions of its latest handset in the
U.S., however the CDMA version sold by Verizon was found to be compatible with
the GSM networks of AT&T and T-Mobile. A subsequent report noted that the
AT&T version can be unlocked to operate on T-Mobile's network via an iTunes
reset and nano-SIM card replacement."